Category: modern history

Tarmac. cobbles, flat slabs  of grey stone

Did   the earth weep when we paved the streets
Tarmac. cobbles, flat slabs  of  grey stone
Leaving  merely holes for trees long roots?

Covering in our cities all that’s deep
Startling ancient graves and  bits of bone
Did the earth weep when we paved the streets?

Motorways  increased that tarmacked  roof
As we drive  our ruinous cars    alone
Leaving  there no holes for trees long roots

In the hidden depths beneath our feet
Live the riches, seeds  awaiting growth
Did the earth weep when we paved the streets?

As the trees bloom  we see our deceit
We want it all  but do not pay nor mourn
Leaving  there  small holes for trees long roots

Once an orchard, now  so sterile,  torn
The gardens   became car parks  bleak, forlorn
Did   the earth  quake when we paved the streets
Leaving  merely holes for trees long roots?

 

 

 

When we speak but do not look

When we speak but do not look upon
The person we address, we are undone
We miss the tiny signs, the looks, the lines
We treat them as mere object we define

We treat them like a post of wood or stone
As if we cannot hurt nor cause them shame
We hit them with sharp words or thoughtless rot
And on and on until hate is begot

All want to be acknowleged,seen and heard
But must approach each other with great care
For most of us are thin skinned, nervous beasts
Who fear they are not asked to the great Feast

And in a thousand gestures we declare
We are not speaking merely to thin air

Heidegger and other scholars

http://www.egs.edu/faculty/slavoj-zizek/articles/why-heidegger-made-the-right-step/

This is very interesting and not too difficult…he gives a longer account than I have seen elsewhere.

I can’t understand fully but am drawn to it  wondering about our  problems now

Related articles

A long review of Conversations with Emmanuel Levinas

http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/24561-conversations-with-emmanuel-levinas-1983-1994/

This is really good.Not just a short book review but a discussion ranging quite widely of all Levinas‘s era and his Judaism.

It makes me think how  much we can take our life for granted when we consider all the tragedies in the world.I read yesterday that men are never confident of their masculinity and thus war is inevitable just as scapegoats have been needed to carry  the  evil of us who cannot face our own evil…

Are humans able to change?What is the role of women in all of this?

I am  mulling it over whilst heavy rain falls down and leaves fly off the trees

 

 

Related articles